A brief history of l'agretto (part 1)

What is l'agretto ?


Quite simply it is a hidden secret, one of the tastiest summer vegetables you could grow and eat.


L'agretto is similar in texture and taste to samphire although without the incumbent saltiness and gritty texture, and, since it is only ever seen served in high end restaurants (see River Cafe) in the UK and not available in either supermarket or foodie farmer's market the answer has to be to grow it yourself.


Served, lightly steamed, with olive oil or lemon juice it is a perfect accompaniment to fish or a summer salad.

Once it has germinated (of which more later) l'agretto is not a particularly demanding plant. A reasonably fertile moisture retentive soil is all it asks for. The reward is a "cut & come again" vegetable which will continue to delight through summer into late autumn and the first frosts.

.

.

How to grow

Providing the seed with as early a start as possible, by covering the soil in early/mid March with plastic (& thus raising the temperature by a few degrees) will increase the odds of successful germination.

A word of caution; even taking these steps, germination can be a bit hit & miss. This is not so much a fault of the gardener or the seed supplier it's just a fact of life. One year germination may be a near perfect 95% and the next only 5%. This is compounded by the fact that the seed only has a shelf life of a few months. The answer is to "oversow". Should you then be lucky enough to get a high success rate, thin out to a distance of of a couple of cms between each plant (early thinnings provide a perfect crunch in salads).

The seed in the photo has been sown in shallow (2cm) drills 30cm apart.

The seed is covered and the soil tamped down & watered .

... the row is labelled

....and fingers are crossed. (TBC)